Report On Agriculture And Natural Resources

Every state,or place in general, needs a type of resource to make money as a

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers food assistance programs that help provide food for low to no income families. It is their goal to increase food security and reduce hunger by increasing access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education for low-income Americans (Caswell, 2013, para. 1). Some of the current nutrition assistance programs include “the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)”(Caswell, 2013, para. 1). SNAP will be the primary nutrition assistance program of the paper at hand. No matter how morally good it is to try to help reduce hunger and increase food security within the United States, there are still many questions regarding issues with SNAP. This paper will be discussing why there is such a strong support for the program, how it helps the United States as a whole, problems with the program, and why some people are against SNAP.

The state of Texas is the second largest state in the United States. Due to its location and size, it covers different geographical areas and climates. These areas support different ecosystems from deserts to coastal wetlands, with local wildlife varying with the environment. With such varied climates and yearly rainfall, it is easy to have crops growing in the east and little rainfall and an open rocky desert with cacti in the west. The geological history is also varied across the state leading to different mineral deposits by region. It is easy to see that Texas is a state with many unique areas that provide a wide variety of natural resources, native crops, and wildlife.

In North America, the boreal forest is known to be one of the largest carbon storage systems. A boreal forest is a biome that is made up of trees such as pines, spruces and another conifer species, the Black Spruce being one of the most essential species of the boreal forest. Fires may be a significant element to the ecosystem in terms of maintaining an ideal community by selecting for species and their traits that, in return, shape the environment, however forest fires are causing the Black Spruce species to deteriorate in population size due to the effects of the fires, caused by a rise in temperature. Clearly, temperature is the leading factor causing constant wildland fires across North America. This concludes the degree of heat intensity in the environment is

However, despite its many advantages biomass still has many disadvantages. Firstly it is not as efficient as fossil fuels, for example the ethanol produced for cars via biomass is not even close to the efficiency of petrol and does damage to engines over time. It also has the potential to harm the environment through increase of methane gases which are produced as a bi-product if animal and human waste is used. Biomass also requires a large distance away from residential areas in order to burn it and a large amount of fuel in comparison to other energy sources which can have dramatic effects if large portions of forests are cut down to provide lumber.1

Inefficient wood stoves and fireplaces can seriously compromise air quality inside homes, as well as contribute to outdoor air pollution problems.

Mayan civilization underwent massive developments in agriculture and within their society. According to historian Sylvanus Griswold Morley, Maya Maize agricultural practices have remained the same as they were over three thousand years ago. (Morley 128) A uncomplicated process of felling the forest, burning dried trees and bushes, planting, and switching up the spots of the cornfields every few years. This system is known as the milpa agriculture, pulled from the Aztec word for cornfield. Agricultural tools were fire-hardened, the Maya xul, a pointed planting stick, the baat, a stone axe, chim, a fiber bag for carrying the seed corn. At first, they used sticks to punch holes into the ground, but progressively obtained more advanced farming techniques. Their main crops they grew were maize (corn), beans, squash, avocados, chili peppers, pineapples, papayas, and cocoa, which was used for

The biomass and density of trees surrounding each plot were also recorded. A static chamber method was used to measure the fluxes of the three GHG. The method was carried out using a closed cylindrical chamber equipped with a small fan, and gas concentrations were measured with an infrared, non-dispersive scope. There were other more detailed, accurate methods used as well to be more accurate with exact numbers for the concentrations of each gas. The concentrations of each gas were compared between each location and results are as follows: As the thickness of the active layer increased, all three greenhouse gas emissions increased. Carbon dioxide fluxes increased with time since the last fire, with the 1969 fire area having the highest CO2 emissions, and the 2012 fire area having the lowest CO2 emissions. Methane fluxes had a significant increase in the 1990 fire area, and a lower influx in all other fire areas. Nitrous oxide had a high influx in every fire area except for the 1990 area, where the fluxes were significantly lower. Addressed in the discussion, the authors write about how their results indicate that areas affected by fire will take approximately 50 years to fully recover to their pre-fire conditions. As well, areas with a recent fire had much lower soil moisture than areas with a long time since last

The Farmers 6000 (also known as F6) is a robot build to farm goods and plant trees on a spaceship. The F6 will help develop a healthy environment, and provide fresh fruits and vegetables. The F6 will cover all jobs a regular farmer has, from seeding a plant, to fixing a plant. The F6 is also very friendly with humans, and enjoys the pleasure of making people happy.

I personally do not think that agriculture was the worst mistake in human history, but many of the negative results of it are still in existence. Some of the consequences that affected agriculturists during its early times have been resolved or neutralized. As humans became more proficient at growing crops and trade became more efficient and viable, a larger variety of food was available. The biodiversity in the food has increased now so that today, there is not a consistent low-nutritional diet for most people. Pastoralism has also advanced to the point were animal products and meat are more available for everyone. The overall life expectancy has also increased greatly from the 19-26 years presented. There are also medical advances and

Humans have been changing the Western forests' fire system since the settlement by the Europeans and now we are experiencing the consequences of those changes. During the summer of 2002, 6.9 million acres of forests was burnt up in the West (Wildland Fires, 1). This figure is two times the ten year annual average, and it does not look like next summer will be any better (Wildfire Season, 1).

Agriculture was the most important economic activity in America from the founding of Virginia in 1607 to about 1890. Although farming declined rapidly in relative economic importance in the twentieth century, U.S. agriculture continued to be the most efficient and productive in the world. Its success rested on abundant fertile soil, a moderate climate, the ease of private land ownership, growing markets for farm produce at home and abroad, and the application of science and technology to farm operations.

Many including Rothkopf, Grunwalf, and Ruiz-Marrero claim that biofuel is not the solution but rather will become a problem. They claim that if biofuel was produced in large quantity then agriculture would convert from food to fuel. According to the World Bank, over seventy five percent of the rises in food prices is directly caused by biofuel. Indonesia is the leading producer of palm oil, a major biofuel. In order to increase productivity, the people destroyed thousands of trees to plant palm tree. The destruction led to an increase in carbon production. Indonesia moved from the 21st most carbon producer to the third. Another major producer of biofuel is Brazil. If Brazilian farmers were to deforest the Amazon rainforest, it could cause a fifty percent increase in global warming. Through the world, deforestation accounts for over twenty percent of carbon emission. A gallon of biofuel requires the same amount of grain as a person would eat in a year. The switch from food to fuel would cause a worldwide food shortage and an increase in world hunger.

Erosion and deforestation are the result from harvesting wood for cooking fuel. The most important goal of most improved cooking stoves (chulha) is to reduce the pressure placed on local forests by reducing the amounts of stoves

Forests have covered the earth for millions of years, providing habitat and food for animals and humans. These forests have stabilized different ecosystems and have continued the natural cycle that keeps plants and animals in check. The discovery of fire changed all of this. It was the beginning of deforestation, a process that has continued and increased over the last 200,000 years. Humans are the responsible party for the deforestation that has occurred. Humans discovered that animals could be driven with fire. This led to accelerated forest loss due to uncontrolled burning for hunting use (Miller & Tangley 1991: 28). Agriculture was the next problem